


Consequences

by CycloneRachel



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: (mentioned) - Freeform, But it's here, Gap Filler, Gen, Introspection, No Dialogue, Season 3 finale spoilers, Short One Shot, Time travel fuckery, angst and exposition, hinted winndox?, i'm sure nobody's used that combination before, one-sided but it's still there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 06:53:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15213602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CycloneRachel/pseuds/CycloneRachel
Summary: Brainy believed the future would change for the better, once he returned to it.For once, he is partially right, but also wrong in a way he would have never expected.





	Consequences

Brainy realizes how big of a mistake he’s made when he returns to the future.

Things are better, of course- there’s no Blight left to terrorize people, Legionnaires are returning every day, and he personally got to witness Imra’s reunion with her sister, which eventually got to be so emotional that it made his heart ache, thinking about how he’d never feel the same if he saw his own parents again.

But a survey of the National Archives, stored at the museum in New National City, quickly shows him something different. Something unexpected.

He knows he invented the force field belt technology, patented it and used it to service all Legionnaires. It was one of his proudest accomplishments, coming up with a foolproof way to keep people safe even when their lives were on the line. However, history tells him now that someone came up with something similar centuries earlier.

It’s nothing like what he has, of course- it only uses the best of twenty-first century technology, and Brainy could certainly perfect it. The method of shielding used in the blueprints is different from his own, and he could still be credited with inventing his version. But he has to concede- for what this one is, it’s brilliant. And in his time, he can see more non-lethal weapons being used, more tools of protection utilized by the police forces and the Legion- and he owes it all, apparently, to this one inventor.

It doesn’t take long for him to discover the name, but once he does, he feels more unintelligent than ever.

_Winslow Schott, Jr._

His heart pounds, looking down at the document. Surely it can’t be his Winslow, the one with ancient technology who’s always antagonized him, looked at him in a way that made him think he never liked him, even when he was attempting to be kinder.

History tells him that Winn was meant to have died, when Pestilence ravaged National City in 2018. But he was spared, and that single act… well, to state the obvious, it’s changed everything. Improved things, which is why he would never consider changing them back. They’re still changed, however, and he can’t avoid how terrible he feels for constantly belittling Winn and the organization to which he belongs.

He only wishes he could go back and show Winn how he truly feels, after everything.

_Winslow, I am sorry._   
_Winslow, I doubted you. I should not have._   
_Winslow, please forgive me._   
_Winslow, you are more capable than you know, and I wish you could see that._   
_Winslow, you changed everything._   
_Winslow, I lo-_

He can’t say that. He knows Winn would never respond positively to that kind of declaration. But if he were to visit him once more, seeing him in person might influence him differently, and cause him to say it after all, albeit perhaps not in those words. But if he told him, however vaguely, about his future, perhaps he could…  
And then he gets a chance to see a list of those who were spared by the Blight. Those who had been wiped out, but were suddenly restored by the Legion’s efforts, and there was a name that shocks him more than what he’d learned about Winslow.

_Brainiac._

He’d seen it as a blessing, previously, when he had first learned his ancestor was one of the victims of the Blight. Good riddance, to one of the worst beings in history, on any planet. But apparently such a good thing would never last for him, and whatever luck he may have believed he had was gone. And no sooner after he learned of Brainiac’s return to life does he learn of the consequences, of such an event- namely, that his own people were dying. People blame it on Brainiac, of course, but looking over everything, Brainy can’t help but feel personally responsible.

Perhaps it’s coincidence, learning about what his ancestor is doing- which is naturally, horrifying, and he can’t even look at the footage of the first effects of the plague taking hold on the civilians of Colu- at the same time that Mon-El’s beacon sends a signal to the future, alerting them that their friend is ready to return home. But maybe things happened for a reason, and maybe this was the universe’s way of giving him redemption, in Winslow’s eyes.

In any case, he can’t wait to tell him the truth, and he hopes Winn will forgive him, even though he knows he deserves no kindness for what he’d said and done.


End file.
